AN URGENT CCDS MESSAGE: Take Action Now to Stop War with Iran!

Dear CCDS members and friends

Trump’s assassination of Iran’s military commander Qassem Soleimani has escalated with the news that missiles have been launched on U.S. bases in Iraq. We are at a “grave and serious moment” in the words of Rep. Barbara Lee.

Trump’s crazed plot to distract the public’s attention from his impeachment and pending trial in the Senate is putting U.S. troops in harm’s way. If the escalation continues, the safety of the entire world is at stake with the use of nuclear weapons an ever-present danger. We must do all we can to stop this madness.

CCDS is urging turn-out for protests on Thursday, January 9th. See below a message from MoveOn.org. If your area is not holding a protest, work to organize one. All hands on deck.

On Wednesday, January 8th at 8 PM ET, a national strategy call will take place organized by MoveOn, Indivisible and others. Join the call if at all possible.

CCDS National Executive Committee

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Dear MoveOn member,

Just as we were about to hit send on this email about nationwide anti-war protests Thursday, alarming news broke that Iran has launched an attack on the American al-Asad air base in Iraq in response to Donald Trump’s reckless, illegal provocations. News is continuing to develop, but it’s already clear that the following email has become even more important.

Assassinations don’t make us safer. Tonight’s attack is clear evidence of that. And that is why on Thursday, we will join together for a day of action across the country to protest and say #NoWarWithIran.

Trump’s unhinged foreign policy has needlessly endangered the lives of U.S. troops and Iraqi, Iranian, and countless other civilians.

We will not be led into another illegal war.

No War With Iran Nationwide Events

Join us on Thursday, January 9 for a #NoWarWithIran demonstration near you and make the anti-war majority in this country visible.

People in the United States and across the globe are tired of war, from the military families who have seen multiple generations in the same conflicts, to the Iranian, Iraqi and Afghani families in the United States who worry for their loved ones back home.

We’ve learned our lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan and Yemen and global endless war. We will not be led into another costly, unnecessary war of choice. We will not allow our neighbors to be targeted by law enforcement. We will not be divided.

On Thursday, January 9, join MoveOn, Indivisible, Win Without War, the National Iranian American Council and About Face: Veterans Against The War to say #NoWarWithIran and oppose Trump’s war—and spread the word!

Already, we’ve seen Trump’s actions unleash xenophobia, with Iranian-Americans detained at the border in Washington state and asked about their political allegiance. That’s not the country we want to build in 2020. And tonight we’ve seen a dangerous response to these actions.

Where Trump acts with ignorance, fear, war, and moral weakness, we will show up with diplomacy and political courage. We are the majority, we stand united, and we oppose Trump’s war with Iran.

P.P.S. And say you’ll be there Thursday to make the anti-war majority in this country visible!

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump’s agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation’s pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?

Contributions to MoveOn Civic Action are not tax-deductible for income tax purposes. You’re receiving this email because you took action with MoveOn. This email was sent to Rafael Pizarro on January 8, 2020.

Systemic disaster or shock can open possibilities for social change not available in the US during normal times; the Covid-19 pandemic is such a crisis. The right wing will seek to exploit the situation; what will the Left do? The CCDS discussion will present an overview and examples, with two speakers:

Bill Fletcher — How the Right is using the crisis to advance its agenda.

The presentations will be followed by Q&A and discussion, including suggestions for new ways of online organizing..

the speakers:

Marilyn Albert is a retired Registered Nurse with over 40 years of experience; she worked in the New York City hospitals for most of her career. She has been active in the movement for single payer health care since the 1970s. She is a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and lives in Richmond, California.

Bill Fletcher Jr. is a former president of TransAfrica Forum, writer, commentator trade unionist and activist. His books include: The Man Who Fell From the Sky (fiction); Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral (co-editor); ‘They’re Bankrupting us’ – And Twenty other myths about unions; and Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and A New Path Toward Social Justice.

THE TELECONFERENCE will consist of 3 two-hour sessions, each with 45 minutes for Q&A. The first will begin at noon EST, followed by an hour break. A second will be from 3-5pm EST. A final session will take place from 6- 8 pm EST. A headset & webcam, or a smartphone, is recommended

THE 21st CENTURY HAS BROUGHT NEW FORMS OF CAPITALISM – from the globalization of production, to financial speculation, to new kinds of cross-national class formations. Paralleling these changes in the nature of national and global capitalism have been new resistance from Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement, to the Pink Tide in Latin America, to international boycott campaigns, to global worker mobilizations to fight Covid 19. Given the rise of neoliberal globalization, drone warfare, crippling economic blockades, a burgeoning climate crisis, and new forms of rightwing populism organized around racism, sexism and revanchism, it is time for the left to have a serious conversation about twenty-first century imperialism.